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They scored a lovely free-kick with the last kick of the game, but Sporting ultimately lost 2-1 away to Espanyol last weekend to show that their defeat of Osasuna was largely because the Pamplona-based side are the worst team in the Spanish top-flight.

The Yellow Submarines of Villarreal, on the other hand, stunningly destroyed Atletico Madrid 3-0 at El Madrigal in the Monday night fixture. It’s important to say that Atletico played very poorly, but what a result for Villarreal!

With regards to this weekend’s fixture, Villarreal have only won one league away game this season – defeating Malaga 2-0 at La Rosaleda – with four games drawn and two lost, so it’s only prudent to have the draw onside, at least for cover.

Sadly, at a 4/7 price, Villarreal draw no bet is too short priced to be my pick, while you can’t back Sporting + 0.5 since they’ve lost five or their last six competitive games and lie second bottom in the La Liga Primera standings.

Goals wise, Sporting’s last six games have seen three or more goals in each, with one being in the cup, but only three of Villarreal’s last six competitive contests have passed the same mark.

So, not an ideal mix for goals on both sides, but over 2 goal line is the best I can come up with at a 1.75 price if you want a bet.

Recommendation: Over 2 goal line (3/4)

Atletico Madrid v Las Palmas: Not televised in the UK

Shockingly, Diego Simeone’s Los Colchoneros were beaten 3-0 away to Villarreal last weekend, which makes them sixth in the La Liga Primera standings. Worse still, Atleti’s goalkeeper, Oblak, was injured in the game and will be out of action for 3-4 months.

Las Palmas, for their part, drew 1-1 at home to Leganes last weekend, leading for 75 minutes before conceding a penalty. In all competitions, it was their third score draw in a row.

In conclusion, either the away team on a handicap start basis or over goals look like the best options to choose from as Atleti are not in great form, their second-choice keeper, Moya, is nowhere near as good as Oblak and Las Palmas tend to score and concede in every game.

However, the handicap is Las Palmas + 1.5 at evens, and I was excepting/hoping for + 2, while over 2.5 goals is a too short to back 8/13. Both teams to score, on the other hand, is priced at 11/10.

The problem is that in Atleti’s last six competitive games, both teams haven’t scored once! Specifically at the Vicente Calderon, mind, both teams have scored in 3/6 with Rostov, Malaga and Granada all getting on the scoresheet.

Las Palmas have scored and conceded away to Valencia, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Sevilla, whilst they did the same at home to Real Madrid, so I’ll take a leap of faith with BTTS.

Recommendation: Both teams to score (11/10)

Granada v Real Sociedad: 17:30 – Live on Sky Sports 5

They benefitted from two ruled out Malaga goals and really should have lost on the balance of play, but Granada drew 1-1 away to the Anchovies to make it three competitive games without defeat.

The, apart from losing 5-1 away to Deportivo, in-form Real Sociedad got back to winning ways by defeating relegation-threatened Valencia 3-2 at San Sebastian last weekend.

In conclusion, after defeating Sevilla 2-1 to earn their first league win of the season, Granada have form and confidence on their side. It’s largely the same for Real Sociedad too, but that 5-1 defeat at the Riazor, coupled with both teams having scored in five of the last six competitive games each has played, makes goals look like the best option.

Recommendation: Both teams to score (5/6)

Sevilla v Malaga: 19:45 – Live on Sky Sports 5

Very impressively with second-half sub Vicente Iborra scoring a hat-trick, Sevilla defeated Celta 3-0 in Vigo last weekend and currently occupy third place in the La Liga standings.

Malaga, meanwhile, had two goals ruled out – one in injury time – and can consider themselves very unlucky not to have beaten Granada at La Rosaleda last weekend.

All in all, I want to recommend a home win as Sevilla have won every league game they’ve played at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan besides against Barca, but Sevilla’s 1/2 price doesn’t give enough respect to Malaga.

Instead, with five of the last six Malaga La Liga games seeing both teams score and the same mark applying to Sevilla’s recent league exploits, BTTS and Sevilla to win looks like the best bet as BTTS is only priced around 8/11 as a single and over 2.5 goals is 7/10 at best.

In a sleep-inducing contest, Villarreal drew 0-0 away to Leganes in their last La Liga game, while days later they defeated a poor Steua Bucharest side 2-1 at home in the Europa League. This victory was their first in five competitive games.

Atletico, meanwhile, couldn’t do any better than taking a share of the spoils after a 0-0 draw at home to an Espanyol side in good form last Sunday. Midweek, it got worse for Simeone’s Los Colchoneros as they lost 1-0 away to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.

All in all, neither team is in good enough form to trust and while they could play from memory and grind out a 0-0 or 1-0 win like they’ve done in the past in this fixture, recent results like Villarreal 0 Alaves 2 make it hard to put my faith in backing the Yellow Submarines on a + 0.5 Asian handicap basis, especially with Griezmann in town.

Given that the last six head-to-head meetings between Villarreal and Atletico have seen less than three goals in each, and in the expectancy of a tight, hard fought game, under 2.5 goals was what I had in mind, but at 4/7 it’s not worth the risk, so no bet.

From experience, when the under goals are too short priced to back, a half-time draw sometimes pays dividends in this sort of game in La Liga, but then it really would be guessing for the sake of it and I don’t want to do that.

Apologies that I can’t give you a solid betting pick in this game, but good luck if you have a bet, thanks for reading and check back for a preview of Friday’s game between Alaves and Real Betis.